I
Don't Want to See
Sometimes
it's not a matter of being unable to see reality.
Sometimes its' a matter of not wanting to see. This is
another aspect of denialism.
Fact is,
there are some pretty darn inconvenient truths out there, things
some of us would rather ignore, pretend don't exist, and hope go
away all by themselves. They have already found reason to
think, or believe what they think, or believe and that do NOT
want to see anything that disproves their hard held notions.
For example,
they believe that the current President of the United States
(whomever that might be) is bad, incompetent, bent on destroying
the country, etc. They don't want to hear anything that
contradicts these thoughts and beliefs.
Now, there are times when we can pull folks heads out of the
sand and show them reality. And that's good, right?
Yes, but it turns out there is something that enables them to
put their heads back in the sand. What is it? It's
the fact that they have assembled not just one but a variety of
things ("facts" or "ideas") that
confirm what they already believe.
Convergent Confirmation Bias
(as in, "There's more where that came from"): This is sort
of something we thought up all on our own.
There is a
thing called "Convergent Thinking," which we discuss more fully
on a different web page, and which involves bringing together a
number of facts and ideas to reach and/or support a particular conclusion.
There is also a thing called "Confirmation Bias," which we discuss more fully on
a different web page, and which involves looking only for things
that confirm or support what a person already thinks and/or
believes.
To
go to the brief introduction to intentional efforts to obstruct, or avoid reality